Pontiac party bus murder suspect denies involvement in shootings

The Taylor man facing two felony murder counts in a party bus shooting in Pontiac last year said he did not fire any gunshots that night.

Craig Lewis, 23, took the witness stand Thursday during his trial in front of Oakland County Chief Circuit Judge Nanci Grant. He described the events of May 13, 2012, beginning with a robbery outside of Porky's bikini bar.

Lewis said Lerrick Myers, his former co-defendant who took a plea deal in the case last week, took a pair of Cartier glasses from Robert King.

Advertisement

"All you see is some glasses coming down, and the next thing you know, you hear 'boom' and (see) a light, and everyone took off running," Lewis said.

Lewis said he ran when he saw the flash and heard gunfire. He saw Myers and another man with guns shortly before Shuntrice Sylvester and Anthony Ellis were shot to death on board the party bus.

Lewis and Myers had been involved in an altercation with two other men earlier in the evening, during which Lewis grabbed a gun that another man had brought into the situation.

Lewis said he took the gun in an effort to defuse the situation.

"People (were) drunk," he said.

"I'm not saying it's natural to get drunk and fight (but) there wasn't no reason for someone to bring a gun to a simple fight."

Investigators believe that gun was later used in the party bus shootings, but Lewis said Myers was in possession of it at that time.

After the incident, "I tried to stay as far away from (Myers) as possible," Lewis said.

However, Lewis did not report the shootings to authorities.

"Where we come from, people tend to stay out of other people's business," Lewis said.

"I didn't want nothing to do with this case."

Eventually, Lewis was brought in for questioning, but he was less that forthright during his initial police interviews.

Lewis said there was a reason that he didn't immediately tell police everything that happened.

"I was scared for my safety," he said.

"I didn't want to be in this case so I didn't speak up."

Lewis was scared in part because of threats he said Myers made between the shootings and the arrests.

"I didn't want to say something to put myself in danger," he said.

"You've seen (others involved in the case) before. They look like the devil."

Lewis said he lied "to protect myself from Lerrick Myers," citing an incident at a mutual friend's house in the days following the shootings.

There, Lewis said he was talking to a friend about the incident before Myers emerged from another room.